Archive for March 2012

Clothe yourselves with the full armor of God to the end that you will be able to hold your ground against the strategems of the devil. (W.E.N.T.)

Now we have established that Christ has defeated the devil at the cross, we must make sure that our warfare is fought from this vantage point. And what is this vantage point: it is defensive not offensive!

Some have painted a picture that the Christian is to go after satan and his demonic army of spirits and offensively engage them in battle and defeat them. In my view, this is wrong theology and opens the Christian to demonic attack.

Eph 6:11-14 Put on God’s whole armor [the armor of a heavy-armed soldier which God supplies], that you may be able successfully to stand up against [all] the strategies and the deceits of the devil. For we are not wrestling with flesh and blood [contending only with physical opponents], but against the despot-isms, against the powers, against [the master spirits who are] the world rulers of this present darkness, against the spirit forces of wickedness in the heavenly (supernatural) sphere. Therefore put on God’s complete armor, that you may be able to resist and stand your ground on the evil day [of danger], and, having done all [the crisis demands], to stand [firmly in your place]. Stand therefore [hold your ground], having tightened the belt of truth around your loins. (AMP)

James 4:7 Resist the devil [stand firm against him], and he will flee from you. (AMP)

1 Peter 5:8-9 Be vigilant and cautious at all times; for that enemy of yours, the devil, roams around like a lion roaring [in fierce hunger], seeking someone to seize upon and devour. Withstand him; be firm in faith [against his onset — rooted, established, strong, immovable, and determined]. (AMP)

In the Scriptures above, the emphasis is always to resist, withstand, stand against or hold your ground. This is because we are re-enforcing Christ’s victory over satan, we are holding the ground that already belongs to Him.

Explanation: When God called us to Himself (Rom 8:30) He also commissioned us (Mt 28:19-20), “Go therefore and teach all nations.”

As we ‘go’, satan will come against us to stop us dead in our tracks. he is the one who is offensive because he doesn’t want us to possess the ground of our lives that already belongs to Christ because of His victory. Our role is to be defensive and enforce Christ’s victory over satan, and he will flee from us.

A story that emphasises this stance is found in (2 Sam 23:11,12. Read in KJV). Shammah was one of David’s mighty men. One day the Philistines attacked a piece of ground held by Israel. The army of Israel fled, but in v12 - Shammah stood in the midst of the ground, and defended it, and slew the Philistines.

The ground already belonged to Israel. Shammah defended it from attack and successfully defeated his enemies. The ground of our lives and the lives of the unsaved, already belong to God. Our job is to stand and defend it against satan’s attacks.

God has given the armour and weapon we need to enforce Christ’s victory (Eph 611-17). The weapon is the sword of the Spirit, the Word of God.

When satan comes against us we use it defensively by speaking that Word to satan and reminding him of what took place at the cross, his defeat at the hands of Jesus.

Eg: “satan, you were defeated by Jesus at the cross. He stripped you (naked) of all your power and authority. He put you to shame (nakedness in Scripture speaks of shame) before the whole host of heaven. He took away your right to accuse, condemn and point the finger. The blood of Jesus has cleansed me from all sin. In Christ I am now victorious over all principality and power and I rejoice in Christ’s victory.

The Scripture says, that as we stand in Christ’s victory, using the sword of the Spirit, the Word of God to resist (stand against) satan’s attacks. satan will have to flee (Jam 4:7) because he hates being reminded of his defeat.

Thus, we have extended the boundaries of the Kingdom of God whilst satan has lost some more of his kingdom of darkness.

Meditation Point: When the enemy attacks me, as I stand my ground and use the sword of the Spirit, the Word of God to remind satan of his defeat at the hands of Jesus, he will have to flee.

Therefore take up the whole armor of God, and the sword of the spirit, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. (NKJV)

In my last Blog we saw how, at the cross, Jesus as a man, defeated satan because he fulfilled the law and took away the only power satan has over the rest of mankind; that is, his ability to accuse man before God for breaking the law.

When we came to Christ we were baptized spiritually (not water baptism) into Christ and identified with His work on the cross. Therefore, we were crucified, died, went down into the grave, were resurrected, ascended to the right hand of the Father, glorified and are now ruling and reigning together with Him as Kings and Priests.

All of this is past tense, it was all accomplished at the cross 2000 yrs ago.

Rom 6:1-11 Do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. For he who has died has been freed from sin. Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him. For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord. (NKJV)

Therefore, when we were (past tense) crucified and died with Him, we died to the law and all it’s claims over us. Paul in Rom ch 7 likens it to a marriage. We were (past tense) married to the law as our husband, but now we have died to the law and have been set free to marry Christ. Our husband is no longer that critical, accusing condemning, judgemental husband of law. He is now the forgiving, accepting, affirming, graceful husband of Christ.

So when satan comes calling to accuse us of sins, weaknesses and failures – we can throw off his accusations because we are no longer under the broken law.

2 Cor 10:4,5. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ. (NKJV)

When he seeks to accuse us, we bring every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ. What is the obedience of Christ. It was in obedience to His Father that He went to the cross to fulfill the law and defeat sin, death, sickness and satan. (Ps 40:6-8. Heb 10:5-7)

It’s the revelation of what Christ did on our behalf at the cross, that sets us free from satan’s accusing, condemning judgemental fiery darts. We simply stand in that revelation and remind satan of his irreversible defeat at Calvary at the hands of Jesus.

Meditation Point: My people are destroyed not through a lack of knowledge, but through a lack of revelation knowledge. (Hos 4:6)

1 Sam 17:45-46 David said to the Philistine, “You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the Lord Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. This day the Lord will hand you over to me, and I’ll strike you down and cut off your head. (NIV)

Types and shadows are prophetic pictures in the Old Covenant pointing forward to what will actually take place in the New Covenant. Most Christians know that Abraham offering his son on the altar for a sacrifice is a type looking forward to the day when God the Father offered up God the Son on the cross as a sacrifice for sin.

Types are good to use because they display word pictures of an event rather than just words by themselves; that is why I am using the story of David and Goliath because it is a type of what took place at the cross when Jesus (David’s greater son) defeated the devil.

So let’s look at the cluster of truths that are found in this story:

1) David and the army of Israel symbolise Christ and His Church – opposing him are Goliath and the army of the Philistines who symbolise satan and his demonic spirits.

2) David is a shepherd boy who’s only armour and weapons are a shepherds clothing, a staff and a sling with 5 stones. Whereas Goliath is clothed from head to foot with armour of bronze, a sword, a javelin and a shield. Bronze in Scripture speaks of judgement. Goliath was already under the judgement of God and would soon receive the penalty of that judgement – death.

Similarly, satan was already judged by God when He threw him out of heaven. Then on the cross he received the defeat that would ultimately cast him into the lake of fire (Rev 20:10).

3) Goliath was a giant who was approx 9 1/2 tall. He was relying on himself and his height to frighten anyone who would face him in battle, which was why the army of Israel ran away in fear (1 Sam 17:24). Whereas David was a man of average height. But David wasn’t trusting in himself or his sling, he was trusting in the name of the Lord. He had God on His side, and if God be for us, who can be against us! (1 Sam 17:47)

4) David has 5 stones in his shepherd’s abg. The No 5 in Scripture speaks of ‘grace’. David’s trust in God released God’s grace (unmerited favour) to do what David couldn’t do – defeat Goliath. David, taking one of his stones, put it in his sling and hurled it at Goliath and hit him in the only place which wasn’t covered by his armour, between the eyes and killed him.

David approached Goliath, took Goliath’s sword and cut off his head. He then stripped Goliath of all his armour.

5) When the Philistines saw that Goliath was defeated they ran away, closely followed by the army of Israel who were now emboldened to pursue the Philistine army and kill them and plunder all their goods. (1 Sam 17:52,53)

6) Jesus was the ‘stone’ the builders rejected, but God used him to defeat satan on the cross. He crushed satan’s headship once and for all. And let’s remember, Jesus defeated satan on the cross as the Son of Man, not the Son of God. He did it by trusting in the name of the Lord.

And how did Jesus defeat satan. He defeated him by fulfilling the law perfectly. The broken law was satan’s power and authority over mankind, and he would use man’s inability to keep the law as a means of accusing him before God and thus keep him in defeat. But when Jesus was accepted before God as a man who fulfilled the law in every jot and title, He took away satan’s power to accuse.

Col 2:13-15 You were dead in sins, and your sinful desires were not yet cut away. Then He gave you a share in the very life of Christ, for He forgave all your sins, and blotted out the charges proved against you, the list of His commandments which you had not obeyed. He took this list of sins and destroyed it by nailing it to Christ’s cross. In this way God took away Satan’s power to accuse you of sin, and God openly displayed to the whole world Christ’s triumph at the cross where your sins were all taken away. (TLB)

7) Therefore, like David stripped Goliath of his armour, Jesus now stripped satan of all his power and authority and left him naked. Nakedness in scripture speaks of shame. Jesus displayed satan as a captured slave (slaves were stripped naked and bound in chains to show they were under another king’s power and will) and put him to an open shame. All the angels of heaven now knew that satan has suffered his final defeat. (Col 2:13-15)

Now satan is defeated, the holy angels of Christ will always be able to defeat the fallen angels of satan. This is the role they play on behalf of every Christian, and this is what we will be looking at in the next Blog.

Meditation Point: In fulfilling the law, Jesus took away satan’s power and authority to accuse man of sin, and thus cosnsigned him to an eternal defeat.